In order to represent a time-continuous signal on a display device, in particular on a display device of a digital oscilloscope, a time-discrete signal is obtained by sampling the amplitude of the signal at discrete, generally equidistant points in time, which signal is converted for example into a time-discrete and value-discrete digital signal in a post-treatment stage and can be stored and/or represented on the display device of the oscilloscope.
The sampling of the signal takes place at periodic time intervals with a predetermined number of samplings per unit time. The number of samplings per unit time is termed the sampling rate. A comparatively high sampling rate is necessary in order to represent a high-frequency signal.
Particularly high sampling rates are necessary not only in oscilloscopes for sampling high-frequency signals, but also in transient recorders, which are systems for the data storage of measurement records in the high-speed range. A transient recorder for the digitisation of rapid signal profiles is known for example from the printed specification DE 37 24 794 A1.